From the producers of The Peking Acrobats comes Jigu!, a vibrant and colorful troupe that will astound you with its ultra-sensory, folk-infused show, featuring spectacular high-tech lighting and special effects. View videoclip...

MOMIX has thrilled Dance Celebration audiences since 1985, now it returns for our 25th anniversary with a special presentation by its founder Moses Pendleton. Expect great surprises and excerpts from your favorite MOMIX works, including Baseball, Passion, Orbit, Opus Cactus, and Lunar Sea, plus a special solo appearance by Pendleton. View videoclip...

Chamber Music Now! "Four Ways to View a City": a multi-media recital featuring cellist Ovidiu Marinescu performing new music by the city's brightest young composers presented alongside original films about their home, Philadelphia.

Koresh Dance Company performs May 24 & 25, 8 p.m.

Penn Museum Exhibits

Engraving Pyramid Tomb of Caius Cestius {From the Le Vedute di Roma (The Views of Rome), 1748-78} from the exhibit, Piranesi: The Grandeur of Ancient Rome. Sixty works by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, one of the major artists of 18th century Italian etching, are featured in this exhibition. Born in Venice and educated to be an architect, Piranesi spent most of his life in Rome, becoming an authority on Roman archaeology. Architectural remains of ancient Rome were a major source of inspiration to Piranesi, whose goal— was realized in numerous, often large-scale etchings of famous ancient sites. A superb technician, Piranesi combined a mastery of draftsmanship and perspective, a strong knowledge and love of Roman antiquities, a sense of drama and an epic imagination in his etchings. This traveling exhibition, coordinated by Blair-Murrah, includes engravings of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, the ancient Roman Forum and the Pyramid Tomb of Caius Cestius, as well as many tombs, ancient amphitheaters, bridges, fountains and temples. Through June 16.

International House Exhibits

La Flor De La Noche Buenos Aires, Argentina from the exhibit Argentine Adventures, A collection of work from Argentina focussing on the two main regions of Argentina: Buenos Aires and Patagonia, by photographer Patrick Esmonde. Through May 18.

Sharifah and Lilia, from the exhibit, From Home: The Women of International House; portrait exhibit by Mary Gaston, I-House’s 2006-2007 Photojournalism Fellow, reflecting on the uniqueness of each I-House resident– their background, studies, dreams and plans amid the common circumstance of being away. On display at International House through June 1. Photo by Mary Gaston.

ArtbotsEsther Klein Gallery Through June 30

Started in 2002 by Douglas Repetto, Artbots is an international art exhibition that features robotic art and art-making robots. This exhibition will bring 7 works to the gallery and pair local scientists and artists with Philadelphia public school children to create their own original works of robotic art and to participate in educational workshops.

Slought Foundation Exhibits

Zero Point Axis: Exhibition by artist George Quasha featuring "axial stones," paired stones configured through the artist's acts of precarious balance (without alteration of stones or the addition of fixing agents). Through June 1.

Grotto: Since 1990, Richard Torchia has worked extensively with the camera obscura, the oldest photographic device, developing customized applications in specific locations and organizations in relation to available subjects and views. Instead of recording "live" imagery, as with chemically fixed or digital photography, Torchia relies upon primitive optical systems. His approach is grounded in extensive research, experimentation, and the artist's reverence for conditions as given. The work seeks to "perform" that which is being depicted, through the act of viewing its formation as a live image. Through May 30.

The Truth in Photography: The Work of Hervé Guibert: “Photographs are not innocent. They influence and ... betray what is hidden beneath the skin. They weave not only lines and grids, but plots, and they cast spells.... They are an impressionable material that welcomes spirits.” -- Hervé Guibert, Ghost Image. Through June 1.

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Exhibits

Equus Unbound: Fairman Rogers and the Age of the Horse;
Kamin Gallery, 1st floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.
Through June 15.

Mixed Media, Mixed Company: Conjunctions at the Common Press. This exhibition looks at some of the collaborations that have come out of the Common Press, the letterpress studio at Penn, in its first year of production, and juxtaposes them against poetry broadsides from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Through August 17.

Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the SunPenn Museum Through October

The city of Amarna was bordered on its eastern side by cliffs of uniform height. Almost at midpoint of the city, the cliffs are interrupted by a gap (the Wadi Abu Hasan el Bahri). Viewed from afar, this break in the cliffs creates a large natural silhouette of the hieroglyph for "horizon" (akhet). Akhenaten may have chosen this site for his new capital city dedicated to his god, the disk of the sun, the Aten, because this natural rock formation created the "Horizon of the Aten" or, as it was known by its ancient Egyptian name, Akhet-aten. This view is taken from the south. Photo by David Silverman.

Statue of an Amarna Princess, probably from Amarna, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE), limestone and pigment. Amarna art placed considerable emphasis on the six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Nefernefruaten Tasherit, Nefernefrure and Setepenre. The identity of this princess is not known. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.

ICA Exhibits Through August 5

From the exhibit by Karen Kilimnik, Steed leaving for costume party on deserted island - emma stays home to work; 2006 Water soluble oil color on canvas 11 x 14 inches Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

From the exhibit, Crimes of Omission, Geraint Evans Dumpster (detail), 1998 Acrylic on board friezes 17 1/4 x 31 inches each Set of 7. Courtesy of the West Collection, SEI.

Arthur Ross Gallery Exhibits

Dramatic Impressions: Japanese Theater Prints from the Gilbert Luber Collection. Exhibition of works produced between 1916-1929 of Shunsen (1886-1960), a brilliant designer of woodblock. By focusing on representations of theater and actors, early modern printmakers developed a vocabulary of visual forms recreating the effects of staging, pose, make-up, and costume. Through May 6.

Hitoshi Nakazato: Print Series: Celebration of this artist Master Printmaker and veteran curator at the Arthur Ross Gallery, who has worked and taught for forty years at GSFA and the School of Design. Through July 1.

Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region: An inspired photographic tour of the Delaware Valley's rich and diverse horticultural legacy as seen through the lens of renowned photographer Rob Cardillo. From the majestic estates of Delaware, to the vital community gardens of center city, this exhibit reveals why Philadelphia and its surrounding towns, suburbs and countryside are considered the horticultural epicenter of the United States. Above left: Balustrade surrounding the iconic Rose Garden at the Morris Arboretum; Above right: View to the Mercury Loggia at the Morris Arboretum. Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) in foreground

The Garden Railway is a miniature world of model trains running on a quarter mile track, set in the splendor of the Arboretum’s summer garden. The miniature world features historic buildings created entirely of natural materials, each meticulously detailed with leaves, bark, vines and twigs. Logs and branches are also used to create unique tunnels and overhead trestles. Nestled among woody plants, colorful annuals and perennials, the finished product is an enchanting landscape that never ceases to delight visitors both young and old. Free with regular admission.

New Upper Gallery Exhibit and Opening Reception: “Nick Kelsh at the Arboretum: Roots, Shoots and Leaves.” Sunday, May 20, 1-3 p.m. A unique look at the Arboretum through the lens of renowned photographer Nick Kelsh. Using close-ups, abstract patterns and juxtapositions of color, Kelsh explores the beauty of the Arboretum through the seasons. Left: A Maple tree from Kelsh's work.

meta Metasequoia
Morris Arboretum Ongoing

Nestled within the dawn redwood grove, meta Metasequoia will provide a fresh perspective of these wonderful trees. The exhibit will elevate visitors up into the tree canopy of the dawn redwoods by means of an artistic structure with stairs leading to the "basket," an open-air room whose floor is 12 feet above grade. Climbing up into the structure, nicknamed the "Grasshopper," visitors will be able to revist the childhood feeling of being in a tree house, enjoy the views and relax in unusual intimacy with these majestic trees.

Drawing by Alfred Bendiner, ca. 1952.
Eugene Ormandy dedicated his life to music, from the age of three, when he first picked up a violin, to shortly after his 84th birthday, when he conducted his last concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is with this orchestra that Ormandy's name will forever be associated, by virtue of his serving as its Music Director for 42 years. Image courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives.

A Wonderful Life: A Daughter's Tribute to a Family of Educators
Lobby, GSEOngoing